End of Can't Cook, Won't Cook

This is a very sad announcement for me, but this blog is being retired. This blog started in America, as part of my exciting journey there, and then continued in the UK as we began our lives together as husband and wife.

That's now over, so it seems fitting that this blog be too. I may re-start it one day in the future, so I'm not deleting it, but for now Can't Cook, Won't Cook is being officially retired.

I just thought you should know, so no-one's waiting for the next installment or anything.

It was fun while it lasted :)

Day 10 - The Happiness Project

Woke up with some serious Monday Blues this morning! I was quite shocked to realise it was time to wake up, it felt more like 3am than 7am! Terribly disappointing. Luckily my day did improve :)

1. I came back to a case that had left my mind boggled on Friday, and it wasn't that bad after all. Which is good, I'd been worrying about it all weekend!
2. One of the team leaders specifically requested that *I* rejoin her team, which was a huuuge compliment.
3. Several members of the team I currently sit with all leaped to fight my corner, insisting that I stay sat with them, as I'm still learning and they can help me. I'd be left to flounder with a whole bunch of other people, also still in training, if I moved. Plus they felt I'd been shuffled around a lot and it was unfair. I'm happy to move wherever I'm told (I'm just a temp after all), but I was quite panicked at the thought of leaving the safe haven of that team! They've been so fantastic, helping me out whenever I need it. I was really worried that I was a nuisance, but them jumping to my defense...I was really touched :)
4. Watching Kung Fu Panda with my hubby, who seems a LOT better today. I'm not sure I'm happy with the thought of him going to work tomorrow morning, since he's hardly eaten all day and he's got quite a physically taxing job.
5. I managed to NOT lose control of my car, despite skidding on the ice twice today. I was able to calmly and gently regain control and continue safely on my way :) And I now have de-icer and a non-broken ice scraper for my car - so I won't have to spend quite so long in the freezing air, scraping so much ice off my car in the morning!

All in all, a good day :)

Day 9 - The Happiness Project

Sadly I didn't have much to smile about yesterday, as my poor hubby was really quite unwell. He was very pale, couldn't stop shivering and was absolutely burning up - 24 hour stomach bug from hell it seemed. My poor baby :(

He spent a fair amount of the day in bed, and I had an Extreme Makeover : Home Edition marathon.

That made me realise how very lucky I am. I have a beautiful home, so kindly rented to us by our friends, I have a great car, loaned to us by my Dad, I have the most wonderful husband a girl could ever hope for, and we both (mostly) have our health. We have so many things that we take for granted, that so many others have to live without.

I might have had a weekend that was a little...well, lonely...but my husband was only temporarily ill, and he was here, with me, in the same house. That's something worth being thankful for, since a large portion of our relationship we've been 6000 miles apart.

Day 8 - The Happiness Project

Having a lazy Sunday today, so I'd better catch back up with what I've been up to! Here's what made me smile on Saturday -

1. Getting to help out my family by being in the gallery, so my Mum didn't have to staff with with two hyper little helpers!
2. I was able to show a wonderful couple their wedding photos, I loved how much they loved them.
3. They brought their GORGEOUS tiny son - 5 weeks old and absolutely adorable! He slept the whole time, and was just the sweetest little baby :)
4. Hubby had a gaming day with his friend, which really perked him up. He's been ill and feeling kind of down recently, so it was great to see him laughing and having fun :)
5. Hubby offered to take me out for dinner, which really made me smile :) Unfortunately we decided to do it another day, so we'd have time for dinner AND a movie, but the thought was there and that's all that matters :)

Day 7 - The Happiness Project

Falling a little behind again, this isn't good - I'm only a week in!

Things that made me smile yesterday (Friday) -

1. I've found this whole week to be very difficult at work, I feel like I've been thrown in at the deep end on something I don't fully understand and I'm just kind of fumbling along and hoping for the best. However, I am aware that once I get the hang of it, I'll really enjoy it and it'll really stretch me. I enjoyed what I was doing before, but this is something totally different and takes a serious amount of cognition. So, I suppose it's not making me smile yet, but there are smiles waiting on the horizon!
2. Hubby TRIED to buy me an iced finger from the bakery to have with my lunch. Apparently the woman didn't hear him, but he asked twice and really did TRY. I'd mentioned a few days ago that I really liked iced fingers, but had thought he'd totally forgotten that I wanted one. So even though I didn't actually get to eat one, I appreciate that he tried!
3. It was Friday - which means that the weekend was imminent, what's not to smile about?!
4. I got to spend the evening with my lovely family, which is enough to make anyone smile!
5. My siblings were so utterly pleased to see me. There's nothing quite like having a squealing bundle of curls fly across the room and rugby tackle you to the floor in a bear hug. It's sad that we lose that as we get older - the genuine utter delight in simply getting to see someone you love.
6. Seeing how much they missed my hubby when he wasn't there. I was sad for them that they missed him, but I love how my family have welcomed him with open arms. My siblings adore him, they worship the ground he walks on, and he's absolutely fantastic with them. I couldn't have married him if he wasn't :)
7. Seeing my little sister run across the room and leap on my Mum to give her a huge hug and tell her - "You da bestest Mummy in da WORLD". What had Mum done? She'd fixed one of her toys.
   
8. Watching a two year old try and get ready for bed. It involved a whole lot of spinning in circles, like a dog chasing it's tail, and lying on the floor (also, rolling around in circles) kicking and muttering "Get OFF you stoopid fing!". She did eventually get herself entirely ready for bed, with only a little assistance and minimal tantrums - and with all the legs in the right holes and with her t-shirt the right way around! Quite a feat for a short tempered, strong minded little madam!
9. Getting to tuck my little brother into bed. It's quite an honour to be chosen to be the one to tuck him in and kiss him goodnight - when hubby's there I don't get a look in! But it was nice to be the one he wanted :)
10. Having my brother (who is an exceptionally intelligent, wonderful little boy, but has a couple of special needs, including mild autism) NOT freak out when he was told he couldn't have what he wanted for dinner. I'd offered to stop by the chippy on my way over, and he had requested a Steak and Kidney Pie. They didn't have any pies. He calmly decided he'd have 2 sausages instead - no tantrums, no melt-downs, absolutely no freak out over having a sudden change of plan. I was very proud :) It might seem like a little thing to most people, but he doesn't cope well with things suddenly changing, and apparently he'd been having a difficult day up to then, including a few tantrums and door slammings, so that was a pretty good thing for him :)

Phew! Think I had better stop there, apparently it was a very smiley day though :) Here's hoping that today goes just as well.

Day 6 - The Happiness Project

Up to date again! This is pretty good for me, normally I fall way behind, and not just by one day! Here's what made me smile today -

1. Today I made the move back to "my" team (well, the other part of my team, sadly not back to the team I used to sit with). Everyone was really friendly and helpful, not minding when I kept bothering them with questions! I feel a lot more confident about what I'm doing now that I have people who are readily available to help.
2. Getting to spend my dinner hour with my hubby, who informed me that the cookies were very tasty.
3. The most spectacular sunset I have ever seen. Honestly, it was stunning. Sadly I couldn't take a photo as I was at work at the time. But it was so lovely that someone opened the blinds properly so we could all see it, and you could hear a gasp ripple around the office. Magical.
4. Bopping away on the way home to my new Steps CD! Had to keep my toes from tapping and couldn't dance though. It was terrible. Some might even say it was a...Tragedy!
5. Getting to spend my evening backstage at a prom show helping out with all the pretty dresses. It was a lot of fun :) I'd love to own my own bridal boutique one day, so I jump at the chance to do things like that!
6. Being told I could have a free beauty treatment in return for my assistance. I was really touched - I just helped for the sake of helping!
7. Getting to taste the cookies I made yesterday, and I can confirm - they're pretty damn tasty :)

Hope you're all having a good night :)

Day 5 - The Happiness Project

Well I had a pretty hectic day, so I didn't get to blog about it! So here's two blogs in one day :)

Things that made me smile yesterday (Wednesday) -

1. Being told I get to move back to "my" side of the building at work, so I get to be around people I know! I still get to work on the more complicated stuff, so that's still a nice boost for my confidence, but the very shy side of me appreciates getting to be around people I know.
2. Watching the Beauty and the Beast DVD I got for Christmas, I love that film!
3. Making COOKIES! It was really good fun and a complete fail which brought endless amusement to both myself and a large portion of my facebook friends. Spreading the joy!

Day 4 - The Happiness Project

Good evening and welcome to the next installment of The Happiness Project! Ah yes, I'm a budding presenter in the making :)

Things that made me smile today -

1. Mostly understanding the new stuff I'm doing at work, a big relief I must say!
2. Feeling like people actually miss me now that I've had to move to a different area in the building. I'm quite shy and struggle with a low self-esteem, so it's been a huge confidence boost for people to have so much faith in me, and for so many people to seem like they miss having me around.
3. Getting to spend another lovely lunch break with my darling husband, who may or may not buy me an iced finger tomorrow!
4. The long hot shower I'm about to go and have. I haven't even had it yet and I already feel happier and more human just at the thought!
5. I got my test results back today and have been prescribed a dose of antibiotics which will hopefully make me feel a lot better. I also got my blood test results back, and they're all good, so there's no underlying issues which is a relief!
6. I posted a daft little poem onto the facebook group for the Creative Writing course I'm doing through the OU and it's had pretty good feedback. Another big boost for my confidence! Yay me!
7. We've just been given a definite date when our assignment marks will be back, which means that I can stop worrying about it until then. Well, I can try to!

Hope everyone is having a good day, I'd love to hear what made you smile :)

All the best!

Day 3 - The Happiness Project

Good evening to you all!

Today is a Monday and it's back to the grind, but that hasn't stopped me coming up with a few things that made me smile today -

1. There was a very lovely sunrise out of my kitchen window this morning, which made me smile as I got ready for work - a difficult thing to do!
2. I got to spend my lunch break with my very lovely husband
3. This one originally started off as a thing that made me frown - I had hoped to get my test results back already, and was disappointed that I hadn't. Then I remembered - I'm very lucky to live in a country with free health care. I don't have to worry about how much it will cost me for my trip to the doctor, or my ultrasound that I'm being referred to, or any medication I might be prescribed.
4. Tomorrow I'll be starting a new and interesting challenge at work (though if that still has me smiling tomorrow remains to be seen!). My team leaders have shown a huge amount of trust in my abilities by putting me forward for this, and I'm very touched by the gesture.
5. Driving home the nightsky was a beautiful sapphire blue and filled with lovely stars. The moon was huge and a stunning shade of silver. It was fabulous.
6. Once again, dinner smells niiiice! Damn I'm a good cook ;p

Hope you all had a great Monday!

Edit : I also managed to finish this post before my pasta boiled over! that alone is a great reason to smile - no big mess to clean up :)

Day 2 - The Happiness Project

Good evening my lovelies!

Today I'm in a much happier and more rested mood than I have been all week, and let me tell you why :)

1. I got a lie-in! Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love my sleep, so I very much enjoyed staying in bed until after 12.
2. I feel a lot better today (probably related to getting caught up on sleep) - eating hasn't made me feel too terrible and my back isn't hurting. Huge improvement!
3. I got to see my family today, and got to help out with them getting jobs done. Hubby took stuff to the tip ("dump") and we babysat while they cleared out my Mum's soon to be "craft room" some more. My little siblings were very pleased to see us and had us all laughing and smiling.
4. Dinner smells gooood! Very excited about it, and, due to Reason 2, I might even be able to eat it all!
5. Hopefully going to watch the next installment in the Harry Potter series with hubby which is a wonderful way to end every day
6. I also enjoyed Hubby's excitement as he discovered things I bought at the supermarket yesterday - "Ooh you bought rhubarb crumble? Thanks baby! Any my vegetables! AH! JALAPENOS! Thank yooou!"

Love to you all, and I hope you found many reasons to smile today - you deserve to!

Day 1 - The Happiness Project

Today I have many things to be thankful for and happy about.

1. Hubby and I are both employed, which is something to be grateful for in this economic climate. I like my job, I like my team leaders, and we've all recently had almost a £1 pay-rise. I got the opportunity to go to work and do 4 hours of over-time at Time and a Half, the money for which could pay for a Date Night (dinner and a film)
2. When I got home, Hubby set up our new surround sound. This I'm doubly grateful for - I'm thankful that Hubby not only set it up, but cleaned it for. I'm also very thankful to my parents, who gave us their old surround sound when they bought a new one.
3. This one isn't one from today, but from the whole week - I'd like to say a HUGE thankful to my Dad, who has very kindly picked Hubby up from work at 6am almost all week. The week would have been even more difficult if you hadn't, and I'm really grateful. Thank you Daddy :)
4. Tonight we are joined by friends. Well, I say "we", mostly I mean Hubby. Two of our guy friends have come over for a Game Night, which makes me happy because it makes Hubby happy. I know he feels he has no friends here in the UK, and that he gets a little lonely. I love seeing him light up when people come over to see him - they didn't come over to shoot zombies with me after all!
5. And, as I am each and every day, even if I don't show it - I'm thankful for my husband. He moved 6000 miles to be with me. That's a massive gesture of love and dedication. I know he gave up a lot to be here, including his family, friends, a very good job and almost all his possessions, but he did it anyway. Baby, I love you more with each day that passes, and you make me more happy than anything ever has. I thank all my lucky stars that Fate brought me to you. I couldn't ask for a better man to be married to.

So, what's made you happy today? :)

365 Happiness Project - The Logic

I can't take credit for this idea, I stole it from a lovely Wedding Blogger and Planner that I follow on Twitter - Boho Wedding and Events. Here's a link to her Blog, reading which I have wasted many a happy hour :) http://blog.bohoweddingsandevents.com/

My Mum tells me that I'm totally behind the times, she's been doing this since the beginning of the year. Unfortunately Mum, credit goes to where I saw it first :P - http://blog.bohoweddingsandevents.com/2012/01/01/365-happiness-project-the-launch/

My first week of 2012 has been a bit of a downer. January is always a bit of a miserable month, Christmas is over but the cold, rainy weather is still here. Plus me and hubby are both unwell - I've had to have blood tests and he's got a really bad cold, I'll be making him go to the Dr on Monday if he doesn't feel better by then. I think it would have really helped this week to be positive and see the good things in each day. So for that reason, my New Years Resolution is to find something that's made me happy that day, starting today, and post it onto this blog. (Sometimes it might even be food related!). I'll then post it onto my Facebook and Twitter, as I realise I'm turning into a bit of a grouch on there :)

So, Happy New Year to all my lovely readers and may you find the silver lining in each day :)

Epic Fail

I had a sick day today, but decided that I'd make lunch for my hubby since he was busy getting ready for a job interview. We agreed on soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Easy enough, made it a hundred times! No problem!

Hahahahahahaha

I started by opening up the can of soup. I was having trouble with the can opener, and kept having to stop and start, it was very frustrating. All of a sudden POP the handle flew off with cogs and pieces flying everywhere! Soup a no-go.

Let's try the sandwich instead. I made it all nicely, cheese, pepper, garlic, herbs...smelled beautiful. Heated up the frying pan, plopped it in and it sizzled away. Good start.

I left it the normal amount of time, went to flip it on over and found that it had stuck to the pan, despite being properly buttered up on the outside. After managing to pick it up I discovered that the entire piece of bread on that side had utterly disintegrated. Gone! Well it can be more like cheese on toast, no problem! I did pause to spray some oil down to try and prevent the same problem.

No such luck.

It stuck again and utterly fell to pieces. Inedible. There was no sandwich to eat! Into the bin it went.

My poor husband had to make his own lunch, much to my embarrassment!

The can opener has now been fixed, and I'll just keep on practicing with the grilled cheese sandwiches!

Hello!

This post is dedicated to my Grandma, who rang me today because she was thinking of me and this blog. So I just wanted to give her a shout out and say HELLO GRANDMA! xxxx

First Ever Attempt At Sunday Dinner!

I haven't blogged in quite a long time (!) but I honestly haven't had anything worth blogging about. Cooking for my family means not being especially inventive - they're mostly as fussy as me!

But today I had a new challenge!

My Dad isn't very well at the moment, and he's the one who takes care of the more "complicated" cooking, such as Sunday dinner. So on Friday he took out some slow roast beef with the intention of making it this weekend. We forgot on Saturday, and Sunday he just wasn't feeling up for it, and volunteered me for the job! Panic overload!!

I've never made a roast dinner before, for some reason I view it as this really complicated, scary task that I've always wanted to attempt, but not had the nerve. And now I was doing it unsupervised. O...M...G. (or in my Dad's case - O.M.B. lol)

After pysching myself up for the task, I went to give it a go. If I messed it up, well it'd be a learning curve, right?

I came across a slight problem when I found I couldn't get the sticker off with the instructions on. Why do they put the instructions UNDER the sticker?! How does that help?! I did finally get the wrapping off, leaving the sticker intact and read it from the inside.

The instructions said "cook the roast in wine or stock". Um...Daaaad? I was told that what I actually needed to do was put the beef in the roasting tin, and put a thin layer of cooking oil over it. So I sprayed the Flora Light cooking spray into the pan, put the meat in and sprayed that too. I find the spray oil easier to use, and it ends up more even.

But for taste purposes I decided "Let's put a little Virgin Oil on there too". Pulled out a bottle from the cupboard, and poured a little on. Hmm...didn't quite smell right...let's look at the bottle...

"Rice Vinegar"

Oh CR*P!!

My family hates vinegar, what is some doing in the cupboard looking like oil?! Argh!!

I then poured a little ACTUAL oil on, as well as some ground black pepper, garlic granules and mixed herbs. Hopefully it'll drown out the taste....!

I wasn't too worried because Dad had said he didn't want any. I think so highly of my Dad's cooking that it means a lot to me what he thinks of mine.

Then he announced that he would have some after all.

Double cr*p!

Well, it was done now. I just wouldn't tell them until they'd all tasted it (and maybe not even then) and just see how it goes.

Into the oven on 170degrees Celcius, covered in tin foil, for 2 hours.

Every time I went into the kitchen (which was quite often) I could smell the slight tang of vinegar. I was pretty worried now!

After the 2 hours were up I took it out, took the tin foil off and put some roast potatoes in with the meat. Back in for another 40 minutes.

A few minutes before it was all done Dad told me the meat was meant to sit for 10 minutes (you tell me when there's 3 minutes to go?!), so I went and took the meat out quick, put the roast potatoes back in, along with a yorkshire pudding each (Aunt Bessies - 4 minute yorkie puds! Love it!).

Dad came in to cut up the meat, and as he started to carve it, announced it very tender "So it's either done just right, or it's undercooked". A slice came off and it was the moment of truth...

"Cooked to perfection!"

Big praise from my Dad, who is normally quite withdrawn with his compliments. Very happy :)

It all got served up - the roast potatoes did fall apart when I tried to take them out of the roasting tin, but never mind!

Everyone came and got their plates and now it really WAS the moment of truth...

It was roundly pronounced ....

"Very nice!"

Woohoooo!!!

It was fall off the fork tender, didn't taste of vinegar (lol), and was generally absolutely loooovely (if I do say so myself). Even the mushed looking roasties were yummy tasting, if not yummy looking :)

So I am very happy to say that my first ever AND unsupervised Sunday Dinner was a SUCCESS!!

I'm feeling so confident in my roast dinner abilities that I've offered to host Thanksgiving Dinner for my family and my Hubby in our new house!

But my family can host Christmas Dinner lol

Seems fair to me :)

Sadly no photos today, was too busy eating!!

Hope to be blogging again soon - from our sweet little house! :)

I haven't forgotten you!

I've not forgotten you, my lovely readers, I just have nothing to blog about!

I'm back in the UK, where I recognise the food and am used to the appliances!! My husband is still in America sadly :(

I have still been practising my cooking by cooking for my family which while eating things I know, I'm learning how to cook for several (there's 6 of us!). My Dad is also teaching me new things to cook each week, in theory anyway :) So far he's shown me how to make scones and stew. On the list is pizza, soup and rhubarb crumble :) But he's away all week, then photographing all weekend so it's a slow progress. I could teach myself these things I suppose, but I think the assistance of my 2 year old sister and 8 year old brother might make it a little difficult!!

So when I have things of interest to write about, this will be my first stop. But until then...well just don't hold your breath!!

Loves!

Road Trip!

I'm pretty sure my readers, if I have any, are all people I know, so you all know that I eloped! This elopement meant we had a 6 and a half hour car journey (a lifetime to me!). I had a lot of fun packing up snacks for our road trip, totally over doing it and therefore having snacks for while we were away too.

I packed crisps ("chips"), loooots of crisps, fruit, drinks, some other stuff I'm sure...

And then I noticed that I had left over baking stuff that I hadn't used yet, and my husband (oh I love writing that!)'s sister wouldn't use them. What better snacks for a journey than baked goods?! The main things I had to use up was pre-made pastry and chocolate chips. So I decided on Jam Buns and Chocolate Chip Cookies. Both had gone fairly successfully the time before, and were pretty simple so they seemed like the perfect things to bake on my last couple of days.

First I made the cookies; these didn't turn out as well as my last ones. I think I left them in the oven too long, but I find it hard to tell when they're done, so I just left them til I was sure :P They were preeeetty crunchy! I think I only ate one, but my husband will eat anything and he took care of them over the week we were away. So I learnt from this...don't cook them so long!

The jam buns I made the next day, we had to go to the store and get some jam ("jelly") first. We got seedless strawberry again, that shop didn't have any "mixed fruit" jams. These went MUCH better than my last ones, I have no idea what I did differently, but I thought they were a lot tastier. I put quite a lot of bun mix on top, a fair spoons-worth of jam inside (nearly used up the whole jar! But it was only a small jar), and they were looovely :) I didn't quite seal the edges properly or something, so some jam escaped and sometimes fell apart while eating. Could be the pastry was too thin or something, I have noooo idea! We ate them up pretty quick, I had about 3 just in the car!! I ate the last one while we were away, then a little later that day my husband said "I'm going to have the last...you ate it!! You had the last jam bun!!" He wasn't pleased :P But I decided that I made them, so it was my right to finish them :P

One Should Never Cook While Drowsy!

Today I was making breakfast for myself and my boyfriend. His went off without a hitch. I used two seperate pans, one to fry up some sausage patties, and one to cook his pancakes, since I don't like pancakes tasting of sausages! Even with this so "complicated" way of doing it, his turned out pretty nicely.

Mine on the other hand...!! I plopped the pancake mix into the pan and let it cook. Then I noticed that it wasn't very flat, so I had the "genius" idea of squishing it more flat. Normally works just fine. But I wasn't quite awake. So I squished down, hard, on the uncooked, sticky side. This then led to some of the pancake being stuck like glue onto my spatula. When I finally unstuck it it had fallen into three pieces. So now I have 3 small, not quite round pancakes!!

But I did find it pretty funny, so I'm learning to take these things well :P

Operation Beautiful

Now this is something I'd heard of before, on sites like www.givesmehope.com, but I'd never seen it in action, until a few days ago.

Operation Beautiful (http://operationbeautiful.com/) is to try and change the way women view themselves, to make them realise that they ARE beautiful. And all you do is put little post-it notes around; in bathroom stalls, on mirrors, in books...anywhere people will see them! All they have to say is "Smile, you're beautiful", or something more if you so wish.

My boyfriend lives in a small town, and we drive 20 minutes to do our grocery shopping. I was stunned to find on the bathroom mirror of the supermarket a note saying "Smile! You're beautiful!". And I did :)

I'd heard of this before so my surprise wasn't that someone would do that, just that word of it had reached all the way here! And even though I knew of Operation Beautiful, it still made my whole day :)

So I want you to reach out, post these anonymous little notes, and help women see their true beauty :)

Fried Eggs

Fried eggs are the bane of my existence. They seem so simple, but I find it SO hard to do! It's the whole "flipping" it thing (they're flipping difficult!!). I feel so daft because I can't manage such a simple little thing, it's very frustrating.

My boyfriend finally took pity on me and showed me (at mid-day, showing me in the morning never goes well!) how to do it. I think it'll take a LOT of practice, but I might finally get it?! I don't know.

I just always seem to break it or not get the spatula underneath properly. ARGH!

So this is the newest thing I've been fighting with, everything else has been fairly normal stuff that I'm used to making. Not been doing much baking, my boyfriend is unemployed and I prefer to attempt new things unsupervised - if I mess up I can slip it into the bin and no-one will ever know LOL

I might get some more jam and make some more jam buns though :) Or maybe make some cookies. I'm in the mood for a tasty treat :) Jam buns sound yummiest, but I have to get more jam first.